Halloween has become a national pastime for Americans.  While it used to be a relatively innocuous, one-day event where kids dressed up, went door-to-door trick-or-treating and people handed out candy and apples, it has become a multi-billion dollar month-long event.  Haunted houses start in September.  People decorate their yards in ways that rival Christmas and the spending has gone through the roof.  It is estimated that 171 million people will celebrate the holiday this year and spend almost $8.5 billion – both records.  That’s still dwarfed by Christmas (in the neighborhood of $600 billion!), but it’s way up from 2009 – almost doubled.  Even with all of that hype, it has long been a controversial holiday for Christians.  All of the occult influence, the emphasis on scary costumes and movies together with some of the pagan history connected to the holiday have given a lot of believers pause when considering what to do on October 31st.  If you choose to sit this holiday out, we respect that decision.  However, if you choose to participate, we have created small brochures you can hand out to kids who come by your house.  Instead of just handing out candy, why not give them an invitation to our church?  It’s one way for us to “redeem” a holiday that has become darker as the years pass.  You can let your light shine on a night that the world tries to shroud in darkness.